Risks related to Digital Assets
Given the nature of Digital Assets and their underlying technologies, there are several intrinsic risks, including but not limited to:
- faults, defects, hacks, exploits, errors, protocol failures, or unforeseen circumstances occurring in respect of a Digital Asset or the technologies or economic systems on which the Digital Asset relies;
- transactions in Digital Assets being irreversible. Consequently, losses due to fraudulent or accidental transactions may not be recoverable;
- technological developments leading to the obsolescence of a Digital Asset;
- network delays causing transactions to not be settled on the scheduled delivery date;
- attacks on the protocol or technologies on which a Digital Asset depends;
- a hard fork may occur if Digital Asset developers suggest changes to a particular Digital Asset software the updated software is not compatible with the original software and a sufficient number (but not necessarily a majority) of users and minors elect not to migrate to the updated software. This would result in two versions of Digital Asset networks running in parallel and a split of the blockchain underlying the Digital Asset network, which could impact the demand for the Digital Asset and adversely impact the price of the Digital Asset;
- certain addresses on the blockchain networks hold a significant amount of the currently outstanding assets on that network. If one of these addresses were to exit their positions, this may result in volatility that could adversely affect the price of that asset;
- if anyone gains control of over 51% of the computing power (hash rate) used by a blockchain network, they could use their majority share to double spend their Digital Assets. Whilst the risk of this occurring for networks with wider adoption is remote, if such a “51% attack” were to be successful, this would significantly erode trust in public blockchain networks (like Bitcoin and Ethereum) to store value and serve as a means of exchange, which may significantly decrease the value of Digital Assets;
- Digital Assets are subject to the risk of fraud or cyber-attacks;
- Digital Assets purchased and held in an account with Binance are not covered by any external investor compensation, customer asset protection, deposit protection, insurance, or other similar schemes; and
- new risks may arise from investing in new types of Digital Assets or market participants’ engagement in more complex transaction strategies. Digital Assets and the Digital Asset market are subject to speculative interest, rapid price swings, and uncertainty.